It can be appreciated that bed side guards have been in use for many years to prevent a child from falling out of bed. When children are moved from a conventional crib to a conventional bed, there is a high risk of falling out of bed as the child may accidentally roll or lean over the mattress edge while sleeping. This is because the child is used to sleeping in a crib or other bed with safety barriers that prevent falling from bed and they have not been weaned off the need for a barrier.
Bed side guards in the current art create a physical safety barrier at the edge of a mattress in various ways.
This includes rigid bed side guards that are either strapped to or physically interconnected with the bed and/or mattress to remain in operable position.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,913,333 utilized a rigid vertical safety barrier connected to perpendicular leg rails, which are meant to be “sandwiched between the mattress and the box spring” and thereby securing the bed side guard in operable condition directly at the mattress edge, but not on top of the mattress.
In addition, bed side guards exist that create a safety barrier and remain in operable position when positioned and held in place between a fitted bed sheet and mattress along the mattress edge. This type of bed side guard is not only simple to install but also has the added benefit of reducing the risk of trapping a child's head between the bed side guard and mattress.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,872,228 utilized a cylindrically shaped bolster to form a safety barrier positioned on one side of a conventional bed and retained in place by being covered with a conventional fitted bed sheet.
While existing bed side guard devices may be suitable for the particular purpose to which they address, reducing the risk of falling from bed while sleeping, the main problem with them is that they have only one operable safety barrier height setting (from top of mattress to top of the bed side guard safety barrier height). At some point in time the bed side guard will undoubtedly be removed and the child may not be quite ready to transition from using a bed site guard to not using one without fear of falling out of bed. So while bed side guards in the current art help prevent failing out of bed each time they are used, they do not offer a step-by-step weaning process to slowly withdraw the bed side guard over time and help the child consciously and subconsciously learn where the edge of the bed is and thereby more safely and confidently transition from using a bed side guard to not using one. The ability to adjust safety barrier height would offer a novel way to wean a child off the need for a bed side guard.
In these respects, the adjustable height bed side guard device according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of providing a simple and safe bed side guard device that reduces the risk of falling out of bed as well as helping wean a child off the need for a bed side guard.